ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (1-6, 0-1 NSIC) led for much of the night but were unable to hang on as a huge surge down the stretch gave Augustana (6-2, 1-1 NSIC) a 75-56 victory at Gangelhoff Center on Friday.
 
Leading by 14 with 12:22 to play, the Golden Bears saw the Vikings explode for a 40-7 run the rest of the way as their shots started to fall on the offensive end and they strung together some stops on the defensive end.
 
CSP looked poised to snap an 11-game losing streak against Augustana as they put together an impressive first 33 minutes, but the late push dropped Concordia to 5-19 in the all-time series with Augie, including 4-9 in St. Paul.
 
Concordia had three players tally double figures in scoring as Bryndan Matthews once again led the team. Matthews collected 14 points, seven assists, five boards and three steals in a full line while Cody Carlson scored a career-best 13 and Ted Brown had 11. Carlson connected on three from deep while chipping in five rebounds and Brown added four boards of his own. Avan Ward added eight points while no other player had more than three.
 
On the defensive end, the Golden Bears put together one of their best performances of the season as they held a high-powered Augie offense to 41.8% (23-55) on the night and 36.0% (9.25) from three-point range. On offense, CSP was held below 40.0% from the floor for the second game in a row as they connected on a season-low 36.5% (19-52) for the game, including a 33.3% mark after the break (33.3%). For the first time all season, Concordia was out-rebounded as the Vikings collected a 37-31 advantage on the glass.
 
The Golden Bears put the clamps on NSIC South Preseason Player of the Year Jordan Spencer as they limited the senior guard to just nine points on 2-11 shooting and 1-6 from three. The sharp-shooting duo of Matt Cartwright and Steven Schaefer more than made up for his inefficiency, however. Cartwright drilled 6-7 from beyond the arc and 8-9 overall to lead all scorers with 22 points while Schaefer hit 5-9 from the floor and 2-4 from deep to finish with 15 points. Adam Dykman also put up 15 points and eight boards for the Vikings.
 
 
The Golden Bears got off to strong start with solid team defense, stifling Spencer and holding him to 0-1 shooting and three turnovers in the first ten minutes to build a 12-6 lead. The Vikings answered with 12 of the next 16 points to jump in front 18-16 with 6:05 to go in the half. The Augie lead reached three at 24-21 following a Cartwright three, but Carlson hit a pair of threes on the other end as a part of a 10-1 run to close out the half to give Concordia a 31-25 lead at the break.
 
For the half, CSP held Augie to 33.3% (9-27) first half shooting, forcing 11 turnovers while committing just seven. The Golden Bears used those turnovers to grab a 13-4 scoring advantage in points off of turnovers while shooting 40.0% (10-25) from the floor in the half.
 
Carlson led the way with three first half threes while Matthews scored nine (2-3 FG, 5-6 FT) and was solid around with a 4-1 assist-to-ratio and three steals in the opening 20 minutes.
 
CSP got off to a slow start in the second half as Augie scored first four points, but CSP countered with four threes and a layup to spark a 14-2 run to build their largest lead of the night at 45-31 with 14:07 left to play. A minute and a half later, the lead remained 14 at 49-35 before the Vikings began their run. Augie scored next nine points to quickly close the gap to five just four minutes later as the Golden Bears went scoreless during that stretch. CSP pushed it back to six at 53-47 with 6:46 left on the clock, but endured another scoring drought of four minutes as Augustana blew the game open with 18 points in a row to go ahead 65-53. Concordia managed to hit three free throws the rest of the way as Augie rolled to a 75-56 win. Overall, CSP was held without a field goal for the final 6:46 and had just two in the final 12:22 of the game.
 
The Golden Bears will have a quick turnaround as they will look for their first conference win tomorrow night at 6 p.m. as they play host to Wayne State at Gangelhoff Center.